Under the volcano
Ever worked on something for about a year, navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of client and provider priorities, brought it to within a week of fruition, and then have it all go up in flames?
Literally?
Last week I shipped 10 computers and some network equipment to the southern island of Tanna. The project, which has been underway for a little over a year now, was to create a computer training and resource centre for the people of Tafea province. Was.
The project has been fraught with problems. Money has been, shall we say misdirected and, after some tactful persuasion, replaced. Some of the partners in the project have been rather coy about their commitment. In March, cyclone Ivy destroyed the roof of the building. The equipment was late arriving and some of it has proven less than reliable. But we managed to leap - or at least knock down - all the hurdles, and shipped most of the equipment last week. I was scheduled to fly down to Tanna to install and configure the resource centre next Sunday.
This morning, I got a call from a friend in the community, telling me that at 02:00 today, the headquarters building for Tafea province burnt down. The working assumption on the 'coconut telegraph' is that the squabble over the distribution of emergency relief supplies in the province resulted in the destruction of the building by those who felt they'd been short-changed. This is not the first time something like this has happened.
Tanna, as those of you who choose to watch the Survivor television series will soon find out, is home to what is touted as the 'most accessible volcano in the world'. I couldn't agree more.
Update: It turns out that the equipment had already been moved to another building, so I can continue working according to my original schedule. All I need to do is to make sure there's no open insurrection before I leave.
I'm pretty sure that last sentence was a joke.
Literally?
Last week I shipped 10 computers and some network equipment to the southern island of Tanna. The project, which has been underway for a little over a year now, was to create a computer training and resource centre for the people of Tafea province. Was.
The project has been fraught with problems. Money has been, shall we say misdirected and, after some tactful persuasion, replaced. Some of the partners in the project have been rather coy about their commitment. In March, cyclone Ivy destroyed the roof of the building. The equipment was late arriving and some of it has proven less than reliable. But we managed to leap - or at least knock down - all the hurdles, and shipped most of the equipment last week. I was scheduled to fly down to Tanna to install and configure the resource centre next Sunday.
This morning, I got a call from a friend in the community, telling me that at 02:00 today, the headquarters building for Tafea province burnt down. The working assumption on the 'coconut telegraph' is that the squabble over the distribution of emergency relief supplies in the province resulted in the destruction of the building by those who felt they'd been short-changed. This is not the first time something like this has happened.
Tanna, as those of you who choose to watch the Survivor television series will soon find out, is home to what is touted as the 'most accessible volcano in the world'. I couldn't agree more.
Update: It turns out that the equipment had already been moved to another building, so I can continue working according to my original schedule. All I need to do is to make sure there's no open insurrection before I leave.
I'm pretty sure that last sentence was a joke.